Usenet OS/2-eCS Survey Results

[Editor's note: The following are the results of a survey conducted by David Lewis
on the Usenet news groups comp.os.os2.advocacy and comp.os.os2.misc. The survey
was in response to a few peoples incessant complaints about people posting eComStation
related questions/posts in these groups. The complainers keep insisting that
eCS is not OS/2, despite the fact that it is an OEM version of OS/2. David wanted
to get the feelings of those who frequent the group as to their opinion on the subject.
I found the results of interest and asked for permission to publish them in the
VOICE Newsletter. David graciously agreed.]

The responses are in and have been tallied up. In total 82 people responded to
the survey. Sorry to take so long in posting the results, but I got a lot more responses
than I ever expected. I figured that 20-30 would respond, 40 at most. Thanks to
one and all for taking the time to participate.

First I'd like to list the answers to the questions, followed by a quick comment
or two based upon the many comments that I received. At the end I'll give my analysis,
and the list of people who responded. Here goes:

) Are you an OS/2 user?

yes 80 97.5%
no 2 2.5%

Comment: The majority of people who responded actively use OS/2. Quite a few
were early adopters.

) What percentage of the time that you are using a computer is it running OS/2?

Comment: Most people responding use OS/2 as their primary OS. 72% of those responding
use it 75% of the time or more. Almost 60% use it almost exclusively.

) Do you use OS/2 at work?

yes 38 46.3%
no 36 43.9
occasionally 3 3.7
retired 5 6.1

Comment: A surprisingly large number of people use OS/2 at work. Several who
are now retired used OS/2 before retiring. Many os those who don't use it at work
wish that they did.

) Are you an OS/2 programmer?

yes 25 30.5%
no 38 46.3
REXX 10 12.2
sort of 9 11.0

Comment: We have a lot of programmers here. Those who responded as REXX programmers
weren't sure if that was really significant. I think that it is. The people who
responded "sort of" seemed to express a concern about how polished their
work is. They should be encouraged to continue developing their skills. The comp.os.os2.programmer
newsgroups are a great source of support and information.

) Do you feel eCS is on-topic in these newsgroups?

yes 79 96.3%
no 2 2.4
unsure 1 1.2

Comment: This came through pretty loud and clear. The people feel eCS is on-topic.
Several people commented (quite fairly I feel) that it is on-topic only when the
discussion applies equally to OS/2.

) Is eCS OS/2?

yes 78 95.1%
no 0 0.0
currently 2 2.4
close 1 1.2
unsure 1 1.2

Comment: Another one that comes through loud and clear. eCS is OS/2. A couple
of people have their doubts that it always will be OS/2. A few analogies were given.
Such as, "A french fry with ketchup on it is still a french fry, only tastier".

Comment: There's obviously a lot of support here for eCS. I should have asked
how many people have eCS versus SWC versus straight OS/2. Personally, I run Warp
4 with fixpack 12. I haven't decided that the time is right for me to purchase either
SWC or eCS.

) Are you a regular follower of these newsgroups?

yes 76 92.7%
no 4 4.9
except .advocacy 2 2.4

Comment: Most people are regulars here. comp.os.os2.advocacy turns a couple of
people off though.

) Do you filter any participants or topics in these newsgroups?

yes 38 46.3%
no 37 45.1
sometimes 7 8.5

Comment: About half the people have had enough of certain people. That is their
perogative. Many others reported that they deal with the noise through other means
such as skipping certain posts or just deleting the messages.

) Would you describe yourself as: a) a participator, b) a lurker, c) neither, in
these newsgroups?

a) a participator 38 46.3%
b) a lurker 37 45.1
c) neither 7 8.5

Comment: We have a lot of lurkers here, including myself.

) May I publish your name as having participated in the survey?

yes 66 80.5%
no 16 19.5

Comment: Of those that said no, more than a few were worried that they would
be harassed for having participated in the survey. Many people were concerned about
spam. A couple of people who said that I could publish their names didn't include
them, so I had to go with the information I had. The following people granted permission
to say they participated in the survey:

Personal comment: When I posted the survey I said, "I'd like to take a little
survey to try and settle some of the various claims that are being made about these
newsgroups and OS/2 vs. eCS". What I should have said was, "settle in
my mind". I don't expect to change anyone else's opinions. Feel free to use
the results as you wish, but I'm not trying to settle a fight here, or start one
either for that matter. Just remember the old adage, "You can tell a bigot,
but you can't tell him much".

Analysis: I feel that this is the real "voice of the people" talking
here. Take a moment to scan through the list of names of the participants. It is
interesting not only for who it includes, but also for who it doesn't. Many of the
most frequent posters did not respond.

It also seems that we have a lot of lurkers here (myself included).

Many interesting comments were given along with the answers. As usual with any
survey the results might not always add up to 100%, and there was the occasional
answer given that didn't quite fit with the expected answers. I've added some new
categories where appropriate. I felt that it was more fitting than just discarding
the answers.

Overall I'd have to say that we have an interesting group of people here, probably
uncommon from the typical computer users. But uncommon in a good way. Thanks to
everyone who participated in the survey. I'm up for any questions and discussion
about the survey, but after that its back to lurker mode for now.